he Twins are believed to be talking about a four-year contract offer worth about $33 million for catcher Joe Mauer, whose .347 average led the major leagues in hitting last season. The fourth year of the guaranteed deal would bind Mauer, who doesn’t turn 24 until April, past his first season of free-agent eligibility.

The Twins have offered Mauer $3.3 million in salary arbitration; Mauer has requested $4.5 million. Usually, the Twins and arbitration players agree to a midpoint figure. But this case could be headed for a hearing.

) John “Hondo” Hughes of St. Paul accepted an invitation from Muhammad Ali to perform magic tricks at the former boxing champion’s home during a Super Bowl party today in Phoenix.

) Twins ticket prices, which range from $7 to $119 (dugout boxes) in the Metrodome, aren’t expected to increase significantly, relative to inflation, for many of the seats in the new ballpark when it opens in 2010.

) Among the stars on the DeLaSalle boys basketball team is 6-foot-8 sophomore Royce White, the son of former Gopher Kevin Smith.

) The Twins don’t want Francisco Liriano to pitch even one minor league inning this year while he continues therapy for his surgically repaired left arm.

) Jared Berggren, the 6-10 Princeton, Minn., junior who has committed to Wisconsin, had recent games of 22 points, 18 rebounds and nine blocked shots, and 25 points, 10 rebounds and seven blocks despite being double- and triple-teamed by opponents.

) Defenseman A.J. Thelen of Savage, a former Wild first-round draft pick, has 17 points, including five power-play goals, and his Vancouver team has qualified for the Western Hockey League playoffs.

) Nearly 70 past and present NFL players are expected to appear at the Minnesota Chapter of NFL Alumni’s “Caring for Kids” dinner Feb. 24 at the downtown Minneapolis Hilton.

) A recent monster truck show in the Metrodome attracted nearly 50,000 spectators.

) Among the Twins’ 175 minor leaguers who will report to spring training next month are players from the United States, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Australia, Canada, South Korea, Cuba, Czech Republic, Mexico, Russia, Germany and the Netherlands.

) One of the best basketball coaching jobs in Minnesota this season is being performed by Kelly Boe, who has the Concordia-St. Paul men’s team off to a 15-4 start.

) Former Gophers and NBA guard Trent Tucker will host a youth fund-raiser celebrity poker party Feb. 15 in Las Vegas that will include former NBA stars Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Charles Oakley. Entry fee is $10,000.

) Retired longtime NFL referee Bernie Kukar of Edina will speak at the Dunkers breakfast Wednesday at the Minneapolis Club.

) NFL official Ed Houculi will speak to Minnesota and western Wisconsin high school football coaches March 1 at Hamline University’s End Zone Club.

)The Twins have every player from their 1987 World Series championship team committed to attend their 20-year reunion Aug. 17-19 except pitcher Les Straker, whom they have been unable to locate, and designated hitter Don Baylor.

) Timberwolves assistant general manager Fred Hoiberg, who is expected to one day run the team’s basketball operation, is scheduled to scout three college games out east this week.

) Former Hill-Murray defenseman Mike Phillippi, who has committed to Nebraska-Omaha, and former Rochester Century goaltender Alex Kangas, who has committed to the Gophers, of the Indiana Ice were selected to the U.S. Hockey League all-star team.

) Former Minnesota Lynx star Andrea Lloyd Curry will be inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame on June 9.

) Gophers football play-by-play voice Dave Lee of WCCO-AM has been voted Minnesota sportscaster of the year for the third consecutive year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association and will be honored in April in Salisbury, N.C.

) Lease negotiations between the Twins and the new Minnesota Ballpark Authority are expected to conclude within a week or so.

) Ex-Gopher Danny Irmen is third in goal scoring for the Wild’s Houston Aeros team with 14 goals in 48 games.

) Former longtime Gophers men’s tennis coach Jerry Noyce is an executive with the Health Fitness corporation in Minneapolis.

) Former Twins third baseman Gary Gaetti is the new hitting coach for Tampa Bay’s Class AAA club in Durham, N.C.

) Hill-Murray graduate Craig Johnson, a former Gopher who played for the Los Angeles Kings, has been playing hockey for Dusseldorf in Germany.

) Former Minnesota Kicks and Strikers soccer goalie Tino Lettieri has opened a pizzeria in Minnetonka.

) Hastings’ Donny Lick, with victories in Michigan, West Virginia and Indiana, was honored in Cartersville, Ga., recently as the top powerboat racing performer in Formula 3 competition in 2006.

) Jerry “Scratch” Daniels, who broke racing records at the Minnesota State Fair during the 1960s, will be inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame on June 2 in Knoxville, Iowa.

Charley Walters’ column appears Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at cwalters@pioneerpress.com

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in Sports

The Twins and the cash-strapped Tampa Bay Rays had plenty of trade conversations throughout the offseason. Saturday evening, all those cell minutes and text messages finally bore fruit. Right-hander Jake Odorizzi, who turns 28 just before Opening Day, will make the short drive from Port Charlotte, Fla., to Fort Myers to join his new team. In exchange for Odorizzi, who...

With only 20 minutes separating the Wild from building a three-point cushion over the Ducks for the final spot in the Western Conference playoff race, they let the lead slip away and ultimately fell 3-2 to on the heels of the longest shootout in franchise history. After 11 rounds and 22 shooters, Ducks winger Nick Ritchie finally beat Devan Dubnyk...

The Gophers men’s hockey team settled for a 1-1 tie with Ohio State on Saturday at 3M Arena at Mariucci but moved within one point of clinching home ice for the first round of the Big Ten tournament. Mat Robson stopped 38 of 39 shots he faced for Minnesota (19-13-2, 10-10-2-1), which is unbeaten in its past four games. After...

Karl-Anthony Towns was the toast of the NBA during his rookie season. The revolutionary big man was the unanimous choice for the league’s Rookie of the Year award after capturing all six Western Conference Rookie of the Month awards during the season. Surely, he was on the path to becoming one of the league’s next great players. These were the...

The matchups for the 2018 Minnesota high school girls hockey state tournament are set. Defending champion Edina earned the top seed in Class 2A, after knocking off defending Class A champ Blake in Friday’s Class 2A, Section 6 title game. Centennial will be the No. 2 seed in its first tournament appearance since 2008, while Hill-Murray, making its sixth straight...

The Gophers suffered another setback Saturday as the team announced guard Amir Coffey will undergo surgery on his right shoulder and miss the remainder of the season. The 6-8 guard already missed 10 games prior to Saturday’s announcement with the right shoulder injury. Coffey originally hurt the shoulder in early January, then re-injured it on a late-game dunk in the...